Meanwhile, the percentages of those who had made a payment for any type of digital news sat in the low single digits. Examples of such payments included a one-off payment to access a news app or article, as well as an ongoing payment for a subscription to a digital news service or as part of a wider print subscription.

This won’t be changing anytime soon, as 70% of UK internet users weren’t interested in paying for any type of content in the future—even for exclusive big stories. Expert opinion, analysis and commentary was the digital news content respondents were most likely to pay for, but even so, this was cited by just 8%.

This disinterest in paying for news explains why around three-quarters of respondents preferred the “free” paywall model—that is, where all content is free and revenues are generated solely from advertising.